7/16/07

Land grab protest at high commission

Activists protesting against Australian Prime Minister John Howard'scontroversial crackdown on Aboriginal child abuse want the Wallabies bannedfrom the Rugby World Cup.

About 25 banner-wielding protesters rallied outside the Australian highcommission in Thorndon yesterday. Another rally is planned in centralWellington today.

Group spokeswoman Tere Harrison said the Howard government's foray into theNorthern Territory using the police and army personnel to crack down onAboriginal people was an illegal land grab.

"We don't believe that John Howard's agenda is the welfare of Aboriginalpeople. His primary focus is the exploitation of their lands and theirresources.

"We're here to tell John Howard that he's not a friend of ours, he's not afriend of the Aboriginal people, he's not a friend of Maori, he's not afriend of New Zealand."

Clutching multicoloured painted hands - a protest symbol used by Aboriginalpeople in Australia - the protesters used a loud-hailer to call for MrHoward to cease activity in the Northern Territory involving militaryintervention, compulsory health checks, quarantining of welfare payments orattempts to gain federal control of Aboriginal land.

Shouting "John Howard is a racist mutt", the group also called for theWallabies rugby team to be banned from this year's World Cup and urged othergovernments to take a similar stance.

Sanctions should be placed on the Howard government as they had on Fiji andother errant states, Ms Harrison said.

The group supported comments by Maori Party MP Hone Harawira that Mr Howardwas a "racist bastard imposing racist policies on a people who are not in aposition to fight back".

Pacific Media Centre

Scoop Pacific

bilaterals.org

Aotearoa IMC - Newswire

"Australia and NZ remained unrepentant for their brutal suppression of indigenous independence movements in the Pacific. They rationalized such behavior as enhancing the welfare of the Islands and the human development of their people – just as they justified similar behavior towards indigenous peoples in their own countries"